Behind the phrase that lends this exhibition its title there are two thinkers: Jean Baudrillard and Andreas Huyssen. The former defined simulation as the creation of something that “has no relationship to any reality whatsoever,” and therefore predicted the replacement of “the real” by “the virtual.” Huyssen picks up where Baudrillard left off, positing that, since reality has been lost and replaced by its simulacrum, utopia cannot exist. Hence the title, “if there is no reality, there can be no utopia.” In other words, in the age of simulacra and virtual reality, the disappearance of the real also entails the end of the utopian.

In the age of information, actual reality has been supplanted by virtual reality, computer simulation and false narratives. Since the concept of utopia is based on the improvement of reality, the disappearance of the real also signals the end of utopia. Without Reality There Is No Utopia illustrates this premise by examining false narratives that masquerade as truth; the collapse of Communism in the 1980s; the recent financial crisis, which heralds the demise of capitalism; the contradictions inherent in geopolitics; and the explosion of democratic uprisings that rebounded around the world. The exhibition, organized into two asymmetrical sections, includes work by twenty-two international artists in photography, video, drawing, painting, collage and more.

The first is The Description of the Lie, a skeptical introduction to the systems, which fabricate the simulacra of the real. In this section, the artists focus on how truth has been replaced by media-constructed false narratives. Judi Werthein‘s work portrays life in a settlement in a region of Chile peopled entirely by Germans exiled from their country after World War II; and Dora García fictionalizes the paranoid state of surveillance generated by the Stasi in the former East Germany. Other artists in this section are Rirkrit Tiravanija and Lene Berg.

The second section bears the title Collapses and is divided into four sub-sections: communism, capitalism, geopolitics and democracy. As Huyssen aptly put it, “Utopia never dies alone. It takes its counter-utopia down with it.” Therefore, when communism falls it takes capitalism down, and as capitalism collapses it drags democracy along with it, since the latter decided to cast its lot in with the former. At the same time, the expansive system that characterizes capitalism also implies its geopolitical implosion. It therefore seems that we should seriously consider the demise of utopia as the great problem of our time.

Artists in The Collapse of Communism examine the conditions leading up to, and the aftermath of, the fall of Communism. The Russian collective Chto Delat? (What is To Be Done?) encourages the viewer to critically engage with the events that lead to the demise of the Soviet system; paintings by Manolo Quejido were inspired by a trip to Cuba, where he asks, “What can we do right now with our desire for revolution?” and Ciprian Mureşan considers the paradoxes of history and memory from a post-Communist perspective.

The Collapse of Capitalism focuses on the effects of the 2008 world financial crisis, with the premise that this was the inevitable result of a system based on consumerism, waste and the depletion of the planet’s resources. SUPERFLEX Collective‘s humorous parody The Financial Crisis ironically suggests that the crisis is an illness that can be cured through hypnosis; and El Roto‘s cartoons, which mix irony, dark humor and sarcasm, create a stark portrait of the current situation in Spain. Other artists in this section are Daniel García Andujar, Jan Peter Hammer and Katya Sander.

The artists in The Geopolitical section examine the influences of colonialism and the West on recent geopolitical uprisings. Through a collection of posters, Zeina Maasri documents the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990; and in his drawings Fernando Bryce depicts colonial practices and their “civilizing” discourses. Other artists in this section are Ignasi Aballí, Zhou Xiaohu and Federico Guzmán.

The Democracy section traces the effects of technology on communications, privacy and public assembly and their impact on democracy. Ed Hall‘s banners depict the micro-history of recent social struggles in England; Artur Żmijewski‘s videos of intentional public gatherings in various cities—Belfast, Berlin, Strasbourg, the West Bank, and Warsaw—feature playful and celebratory events; Oliver Resslerinterviews philosophers, politicians, activists and concerned citizens, asking What is Democracy?; andCarlos Motta‘s photographs feature political graffiti on the walls of various Latin American cities.

Without Reality There Is No Utopia is organized by the Centro Andaluz de Arte Conteporaneo in Seville, Spain, where it was originally presented in 2011. Curators are Alicia Murría, Mariano Navarro and Juan Antonio Álvarez Reyes.

For more information on Without Reality There Is No Utopia, artist bios, and visitor information, click here.

The Van Abbemuseum asked the artists Ilya (b. 1933) and Emilia (b. 1945) Kabakov to organise an exhibition of their work together with that of El Lissitzky (1890–1941), as guest curators. For the Lissitzky – Kabakov exhibition, they made an extensive selection from their own work and that of Lissitzky. It is the first time that the oeuvres of these famous 20th-century Russian artists are being presented together. Bringing together Lissitzky and the Kabakovs completes the circle which started with the revolutions in the early years of the twentieth century and finished with the upheavals of 1989. The confrontation between early Soviet art and that of the later Soviet era presents opportunities for a better understanding of the art and culture of the intervening period. In addition to works from the collection of the Kabakovs and the Van Abbemuseum, there will be loans from the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Centre Pompidou in Paris, as well as from a number of private collections. Some of the Kabakovs’ installations have also been recreated for this occasion.

Two sides of the Soviet coin
Lissitzky’s enthusiasm for the revolution and his involvement in the new social order is present everywhere in the exhibition. In contrast, one constantly comes across the Kabakovs’ melancholic but also humorous representation and interpretation of the conditions of the late Soviet era. The mother country of both the artists had become a place where the rhetoric of progress had run aground on the everyday reality of life in that society. Nevertheless, it proved possible to re-emerge from this twilight zone.

Publication
There is a detailed catalogue available in Dutch and English for the exhibition, with an in-depth article by the Kabakov expert Professors Boris Groys, an imaginary interview with Lissitzky by Professor John Milner, an expert in avant-garde Russian art, and an interview with Ilya and Emilia Kabakov by the artist Anton Vidokle. All the works in the exhibition are shown in colour, arranged in accordance with the themes in the exhibition. Finally, the book contains an illustrated image biography of the artists.

Guest curators
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

Curator Van Abbemuseum
Charles Esche

Project leader Van Abbemuseum
Willem Jan Renders

The exhibition is part of NLRF2013, the Dutch – Russian year and is scheduled to travel to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Multimedia Art Museum (MAMM) in Moscow in 2013.

For more information on Lissitzky – Kabakov, Utopia and Reality you can visit www.vanabbemuseum.nl
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Floating cities, artificial mountains, vertical farms and flying houses: Today, utopias are in fashion again. Like the early utopias, they respond to collapsing systems, are built on inhospitable territories and conceive structures freed from social constraints and gravity. Utopias have always fulfilled a multi-functional role. They transcend reality and permit its vehement criticism at the same time. In 1930, Buckminster Fuller predicted cosmic bankruptcy and offered houses using space technology in reply. The 1960s exhibited an ironic remodelling of technological progress, and the 1970s, in response to any economies whatsoever, an architecture of maximum pleasure gain. Towards the end of the 20th century, architectonic utopias increasingly disappeared, making room for a construction boom and a new pragmatism. Even without utopias, new cities grew, demanding fast concepts in global architecture. Utopic thinking was posited to be obsolete.

Today's utopias may have lost the criticism of the system, then again they are still meaningful. Climate change, disasters and social inequalities cannot be solved in the now, making a drifting-off into possibilities plausible. How to deal with drought, floodings and mountains of garbage? What to do in the future, with the cities, the landscape, the deserts and the sea?

Utopia, Utopia! congregates radical and questioning counterworlds of the yet impossible to build for tomorrow's supercity. Architects show insane buildings, urbanists the city in a hundred years from now, artists present subversive counter models, men and women of letters enter fictional spaces and philosophers talk about the sense or nonsense of utopias.

Annie Licata is rigth when she writes for Hypebot.com "There’s no work involved in consuming music anymore, whether it be finding or listening or sharing — there’s no reward. Technology has stolen gratification in music."

Utopia has become a controversial concept, spanning the field between the belief in an ideal society and the dystopian nightmare. Within the last decade, the contemporary art scene has witnessed a return of utopia and utopian thinking. Whether detectable as an impulse, critically reassessed as a concept, or cautiously or daringly articulated in a specific vision—utopia continues to matter. This publication investigates the meanings of utopia in contemporary art. Theorists, critics, and curators discuss the different ways of thinking and performing utopia in contemporary art from a broad range of angles. The essays explore the current relevance of utopia as well as how people in different societies live, think, act, and imagine. The two parts, Utopia Revisited and Utopian Positions, provide both a theoretical backdrop for the reformulations of utopia in contemporary art as well as examinations of specific utopian stances in connection with the three-year utopia project at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art and solo shows by Qiu Anxiong, Katharina Grosse, and Olafur Eliasson.

I always get emails by ¨cˇu'm„a* presenting their projects. It is about time to link to their site and activities.

¨cˇu'm„a*is a non-profit contemporary art organization, aiming to activate urban and rural communities by creating contemporary art projects and acting as a mentor for art organizations and initiatives. ¨cˇu'm„a* is based in Istanbul, Turkey.

Their currant project Istanbul - Amsterdam Audio Tours is an attempt to draw different personal maps of metropolises, focusing on the subjective perception of urban environments and the impact of these environments on shaping this perception. The 2010 edition of the project was conceived with the idea to execute an audio tour prepared for a certain city, in another one. To what extent would these metropolises be similar? Could it be possible to make an audio tour for Istanbul that would fit another European city (and vice versa)? What would the complementary elements in both cities be? Would these be the immigrants, the sounds, some stories, a feeling or just a coincidentia oppositorum?

The MIT Visual Arts Program hosts a cross-disciplinary lecture series that includes speakers from art, architecture, urbanism and technology from around the world. These speakers will start a discourse to imagine tomorrow's urban living conditions.

Dorninger's book "Verschwinden Perspektive Utopie" (base records 0809-15) on all three topics of the trilogy "Hisatsinom, über das Verschwinden", "Nasca, über die Perspektive" and "Shangri-La, Projektionen von Utopia" is now available at base shop or at BOD

I'm still not entirely sure how - changing light cues an hour before doors opened while Fadi smashed up his brand new Western Digital Players (who were doing anything but that) and brought in Linux and Mac machines to the rescue, god knows where from. All that after four hours of sleep. If you ever thought doing a Fringe show was bad, try doing a multimedia show.

But it all came together in the end - Phil and Yuki performed an awesome opening Shangri-La medley that drew the crowds into the space, then Loten sang his first song and enchanted everyone - George gave a fantastic performance both at the sail and in his crazy flying percussion machine, while Fadi kept it all together with his magic sounds and videos.

I'm really pleased with the way everything turned out, and with the great team we put together in so few days: Milan our light designer, Roland the sound engineer, Ingo the video engineer, our great stage crew Verena, Maxi and Pascal, George who built the rigging, Joseph the percussion engineer - not least Iris, the production manager, and especially Gabi, without whom we all would have been utterly lost. Everyone worked great together and contributed with their own ideas and creativity to making it all happen. And the people loved it.

Two days to go until we will reveal the Way to Shambhala to you. We are very excited. Fadi is just adding some finishing touches to the masterpiece, while I fuff around with the website and tidy up some loose ends.

This is your last chance to tell us your way to Shambhala - so register now and upload yours!

Oh, and don't forget to book your ticket. No ticket, no utopia. It's that simple.

There are online mags aplenty on the world wide web. What sets this one apart is its distinctive mix of rather superb short fiction pieces, fresh perspectives on the current state of the world and some other thing they call "Talking Heads".

About the latter all we can say is that apparently it does not require editor and founder Yascha to have a preparatory shave. Nor comb his hair. Nor even get out of bed properly.

Loten Namling will perform on the 5 th of Augst 2009 in Laussane Switzerland, when His Holiness will give teachings. Sujay Bobade, a wonderful musician and friend from India will appear as special guest in the concert. He is a very well known Indian Bansuri flute player and he will perform Indian meditative Ragas on the flute.

You can buy this beautiful calendar "Mustang, The Hidden Kingdom" at Lulu with photographs from Wolfgang Dorninger.

A calendar that abducts you in the hidden and enigmatic kingdom Mustang (Lo). Lo is a part of Nepal, but culturally, religiously and through its landscape more Tibet.
Until 1992 the kingsdom of Mustang was not open for western people.

The whole benefit of this calendar is a donation to the Tsosher Manjushree School in Tsosher, Upper Lo, Nepal.

Shangri-La, projections of utopia invites its audiences to travel to their own utopia, into a temporary space without beginning or end, to the legendary utopia in the depths of the Himalayas. They are contrasted in musical and visual terms with the real utopias of the present. The visual and acoustic structures that the travellers step into react to them in real time.